willthethrill

No Bizzarro overlay makes me doubt its going to be just turning the cars around. It would improve only some of the rides flaws. Look at what they've been doing with all their other rides recently. They're finally been taking what was a vast yet mediocre coaster collection and turned it into truly world class. They've eliminated the dead weight in Psyclone and Flashback, and have with the recent painting of many rides, experimenting with Scream!, and X2 makeover, really improved their collection with relatively minimal investment. (relative to cost of new coasters) Now take Superman. Still has potential and it always has; plus its an iconic structure in the park. Think back to its biggest selling points when it was first released: tallest coaster, first to break 100 mph, and 8 seconds of weightlessness. We all know that it never lived up to its billing. And being the first of its kind, no one really knew what kind of ride it gave. Unfortunately, while visually intimidating, its rather tame with a slow launch, mediocre top speed, forceless ascent/descent, and lack of visual stimulus to truly display its staggering height to passengers. The 8 seconds of weightlessness was a bit overblown too. I don't think they're looking to shatter any records or blow anyones mind, I think we should keep our expectations low. They're just trying to make the ride good and balanced against the rest of their collection, and it really wouldn't take much to improve the experience. Make it go faster, introduce some physical forces, and find a way to get more visual impact from it, both on and off. I wouldn't be surprised to see the same thing happen to Colossus in the next 5 years, just gotta wait on how the whole Texas Giant thing pans out.

Theory: Superstucture, track, and station are to remain mostly unchanged. Notable rennovations include re-vamped launching system to increase efficiency and uptime, new carriages, and new paint. Pièce de résistance - The new launch system is designed to overshoot top of tower with markedly improved acceleration and top speed. Superman 2.0 will introduce speed reduction magetic fin breaking system at peak of tower. New ride program sequence calls for lauch to speeds in excess of 100 mph, vehicle to approach peak of tower with ample speed to clear the tower but is slowed to a stop (think X-Scream at Stratosphere), held for several moments, then is allowed a static freefall release back to station. What the ride *should* have been at opening.

If you do anything enough times, even riding a roller coaster, it can cease to be fun no matter how little the experience itself has changed. (remember when you first got your drivers permit?) There are many here who love roller coasters but walk right past that ride (Colossus) because, as we all know, its quite ho-hum when you stack it next to the rest of the collection. And it ceased to be "fun" when they killed the second half of the ride, ceased racing operations, and replaced the rolling stock for whatever is clunking around the track today. People are not stupid. That ride is a Southern California classic and plenty of people that visit MM know this. You mention ROI in your post. I can't think of a better ROI than restoring this ride. People are suckers for nostalgia. Electric Light Parade, Captain EO, Submarine Voyage; there's a reason Disney is the most successful at what they do... BTW, 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the addition of the block brake. There are 4 wooden roller coasters in Southern California. Why not have the best 2?

(I believe) She was ejected on the small camelback just after the second drop. That part of the ride was re-profiled shortly after the ride opened. I doubt there are many that post on the forums that can provide testament to the awesomeness Colossus was on day 1

I went the first summer it opened, I'm sure there are others here who remember the insanity that was the BTR line. There were a lot fewer coasters back then as well. Leads me to wonder... The reason for putting that block brake on Colossus was to increase capacity, hardly a necessity at all these days with 15 coasters. Think we can ever expect a return for glory for that ride? We all know its been a pipe dream but it actually seems plausible these days. It would become a very popular "family" ride again if it became fun again. I say family coaster because it does sit in the shadow of a big boy, and relatively speaking its much tamer than it was when it debuted. The superstructure still exists...

yeah, I tried to edit the post to make myself more clear as I was expecting a wise-acre response but couldn't for some reason. I don't think we'll see a line that long again either...

Ill be really impressed with the parks progress when I see this again.

I'm lucky enough to have gotten a ticket to the event this Saturday from a friend who works for the Gas Company. Its Sempra Energy's company picnic. I'm really looking forward to it because the park is open until 10. It should be like ERT there after 8pm. (I'm hoping)

Hey all, I would appreciate any input you guys could give on what are the must do parks in Europe. I would scroll though endless pages of pictures and reports but I figured this may garner decent conversation. Any suggestions for areas near Paris, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Belgium, Germany, Amsterdam, Prague...(or anywhere worth going out of the way for) would be helpful. (nothing in Britain however) My primary reason for posting this is we will probably only have time to visit maybe 3 parks while we're there, and since theres a lot of expertise to draw on in this forum I figured maybe people would tell me which places cannot be missed. Cheers mates! (I heard of a ridiculous zip line type attraction a while ago, but cant for the life of me find it again on the internet. Anyone know what the devil I could be talking about? Anything that will get my heart pumping, not just coasters and parks would be awesome.)

...again I am very much looking forward to Sunday, X2 or not. But one thought remains; the opening is slated Memorial day (not sure if this is quite accurate but never-the-less in the ballpark) which would put X2 a full 3 months away. Of course as Robb said station components and rider accommodations are probably not ready but why test the trains now? I am no expert on such matters but from most of my past observations of parks testing new rides (especially after hours) is usually one of the last preparatory motions made before a coaster is opened to the public. Clearly the ride is operational. Again the timing in my opinion is just too perfect, and not to take anything away from Robb as I'm sure the park isn't hiding anything from him, but it would be in their best interest as far as crowd control to prevent any notion of a soft opening from being disclosed. Just the casual musings of a troll who couldn't resist...

A little curious this hasn't been brought up yet (perhaps it has), but I wouldn't be terribly shocked if one of the "surprises" for West Coast Bash is a soft opening of X2. I was pondering the possibility, but knew it wouldn't be feasible unless they started testing right away and apparently thats not too much of a problem now. Maybe I'm just being naive, but it seems that with the relationship Robb has garnered with management, the effort the brass are putting in to please, the obvious fact they actually care what us know-nothing know-it-alls think and the unbelievably coincidental timing of the event give me very good reason to be excited for Sunday. Either way I'm sure the only disappointment I'll face on Sunday will be being wrong.

wow. I'm *almost* speechless. I'll let someone with more experience handle this one... I cant resist Is this for real, he's linking to the competition? Is there something in these threads not covered here? Could it be possible that these 84 pages are nothing more than rambling drivel drafted by a nerdy group of prepubescents? Apparently I've been wasting my time on this half ass coaster site.

The ride's layout should provide a "Blaze" ing good time...